Hartwell Questioning Paternity

August 01, 2016
By
Law Offices of Korol & Velen

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After only seven months of marriage, and after announcing they are expecting
a child together, Keshia Knight Pulliam and husband Ed Hartwell have filed
for divorce. It appears that Hartwell might also be questioning paternity
of their child.

Pulliam and Hartwell Divorce After 7 Months

Former NFL player,Ed Hartwell, 38, filed court papers on July 25, citing
irreconcilable differences. Keshia Knight Pulliam, 37, who played Rudy
Huxtable on The
Cosby Show married during a secret ceremony on New Year’s Eve at their Georgia home.

As Pulliam explained on her podcast Kandidly Keshia, “We [got married]
literally in our living room in our home. We come from large families.
I’m one of four, Ed is one of six. We invited people. They had no
clue they were coming to a wedding. They thought they were coming to a
New Year’s party.”

Baby Announcement and Paternity Test

Earlier in July, Pulliam announced the couple’s pregnancy via her
Instagram account, captioning the photo of her baby bump with: “Surprise!!!
We have a new addition coming soon.” As she explained during her
podcast: “She is so spoiled already! It’s funny, though —
literally she visited me in my dream about over a year ago and I can see
her face as clear as I am looking at you right now. It was the most surreal
experience of waking up and knowing that was her. I knew I was going to
have a little girl first.”

It appears that Hartwell is skeptical about if he is the father or not.
As he told TheYBF.com via his rep, “Right now, the only thing I
want is a paternity test for the baby.”

Proving Paternity

There are numerous reasons for why you would want to prove the paternity
of your child’s father. Not just for you – to seek child support
– but also for your child. Being able to prove paternity can mean
the difference between your child receiving legal right to death benefits
such as social security or Veteran’s benefits, or possible inheritance
– in the event of the birth father’s death.

Paternity

Paternity is defined as: the state or condition of being a father. This
type of action arises when the parties, who were never legally married
to each other, are the parents of a child. Either the mother or the father
of the child may file the Petition to Establish Parental Relationship
of a child. Once paternity is established, the court will make decisions
on the issues of child custody, child support, and child visitation.

Below we go into specifics about the importance of establishing paternity
– not just in cases of divorce – but for all other reasons,
as well as how to establish paternity. We then will discuss parental rights,
and the forms of child custody. When it comes to child custody cases,
you might need to be able to prove paternity in order to receive custodial rights.

Paternity Tests

There are various other reasons for why a paternity test may be ordered,
including the following:

Financial Reasons

A mother seeking child support compensation will need proof a certain man
is the actual father of a child, especially if he denies it. A decision
on paternity can be especially necessary when a mother is seeking and
applying for state aid to raise her child. A majority of states refuse
to offer child financial help unless a mother has already sought the help
of child support payments from the child’s father.

Avoiding Child Support

If you are a man, and have been sought out for child support payments because
of a child you may or may not have fathered, it’s important to know
that most states have measures in place to track down fathers that cannot
be located and who may be avoiding paying child support by making claims
they are not the father. Once a man is located, a court will issue a paternity
test to determine if the man is the father, and thus, needs to supply
child support aid.

Helpful for Fathers

Paternity tests determine if a child is yours or not. If you are being
held accountable for a child that is not yours, then a paternity test
is a definitive way to determine if you need to make those payments or
not. But you can not just refuse to make the payments. If you are seeking
to avoid making payments you will need to take a court-approved and facilitated
test in order to prove you are not the father of the child. If you are
being forced to make payments and you are unsure of your paternity, a
paternity test is the only way you will be able to legally say you do
not need to make payments.

At-Home Paternity Tests

There are many claims about at-home paternity tests, but only tests taken
in court-approved locations can be deemed as legally official. Results
of home testing kits are not accepted in court. Paternity law requires
that only an approved official, such as a laboratory employee, can collect
DNA. Neither parent is allowed to handle it (as would usually be done
with an at-home test) in order to prevent possible tampering.

Establishing Parental Rights

Because parents are often unmarried at the time of conception or birth
of a child, a paternity case might need to be opened in order to establish
paternal rights. These types of cases can be complex, so it might be in
your best interest to consult an experienced family law attorney.

California Family Code section 7570

California Family Code section 7570 states “there is a compelling
state interest in establishing paternity for all children.” This
is because “establishing paternity is the first step toward a child
support award.” Paternity is used as basis for child custody and
visitation orders. Conclusive determination of the father and mother of
a child are needed for: medical diagnosis, health insurance, social security,
military benefits, and inheritance rights. The code states, “knowing
one’s father is important to a child’s development.”
Family court judges always have a child’s best interest in mind
when determining rulings on child support and child custody and visitation cases.

California’s Procedure For Voluntary Paternity

California has an established procedure for establishing voluntary paternity.
This procedure has helped ease the process of establishing paternity.
Increased paternity establishment means more children have access to child
support as well as other benefits that legally belong to them. This process
also saves both parties, as well as the court, time and money when it
comes to determining paternity and the legal aspects required of fathers.

California Family Code section 7571

Under California Family Code section 7571, the man the mother identifies
as the father at the time of the birth has the opportunity to complete
a voluntary declaration of paternity.

Once the declaration is signed by both parties (and witnessed), hospital
staff forward the signed document to the Department of Child Support Service
within twenty days of the date the declaration was signed. Generally,
this completed and properly filed voluntary declaration of paternity establishes
the paternity of a child. Should there be any legal issue, this signed
document should have the same weight and effect as a legal paternity judgment.

In Brown’s case, because Riesling was declared as the father at the
time of the child’s birth, there will need to be legal amendments
made for Brown to be able to claim Royalty as his own. It is important
that Brown be declared as a father to the child should Brown seek legal
custody of the child.

This is why paternity is important to establish. Paternity must be established
if you are seeking full custody.

Determining Custody

Full child custody, also known as sole custody, means all legal parental
rights are assigned to just one of the parents. There are two kinds of
“sole” custody:

sole physical custody – the child lives with the parent, and

sole legal custody – the parent has a legal right to make decisions
for the child.

Most family law courts award joint custody, because it has been found to
be in the best interest of a child to be raised by both parents. Usually
when a parent files for sole custody it is because they see the other
parent as unfit to take care of the child. This can be for various reasons,
including: inability to provide for child, abuse, or a history of abuse
or addiction.

Filing for Full Custody

Seeking full custody can be difficult if you are unable to prove that the
other parent is unfit. There are some steps you’ll want to take:

Talk to afamily law attorney. A family law attorney will be familiar with the laws regarding custody
and how to advise you based on your specific case.

Learn about what petition to file. A family law attorney can help with this, but if you are planning on
working without one you can go to a local court or online to determine
the paperwork you need to file. Each state has its own laws regarding
child custody cases (which is why it’s advised to work with a family
law attorney). Here are a few petitions that may apply:

Petition to establish custody

Petition to revise or update a petition that’s already in place

Petition to establish paternity (if the paternity of the child is questioned
you will also need to file a petition that mandates a paternity test be
completed before the custody request is considered) and install custody

Fill out all of the required paperwork and file the paperwork in court. If you are working with an attorney he or she will review everything before
you file it in court. You will want to make sure you make copies for your
files and for the other parent’s files. The court will keep the
original. Once a petition has been filed you will
receive a court or mediation date. Both parents are required to be in attendance. If an agreement cannot
be made at that date, the case will need to go in front of a court.

Working with a Family Law Attorney

Determining paternity and seeking child custody can be difficult. But a
family law attorney will be able to help you through. If you decide to
hire a family law attorney lawyer to help with your child custody case,
it’s important to choose one that will be a good fit for you and
your situation. They can advise on co-parenting schedules and how to work
out child custody and alimony agreements should you decide to co-parent.
Working with a family law attorney will help you receive a fair agreement.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.